Introduction
by Agnes Cornel
Summary: "Let me introduce myself. My name is Sebastian Verlac." It was written for the 100 Themes Challenge. Clary wants to be free from feelings for her brother, Jace, and Sebastian is there.


**A/N: ****It's for the first theme in the 100 themes challenge. Little Sebastian/Clary titbits from City of Glass, in that way I wanted to see it happen. Clary wants to be free from feelings for her brother, Jace, and Sebastian is there. I'm not English, I'm Hungarian, a friend of mine, Nancy helped me with the translating. I hope it'll be readable and you can enjoy this. I dedicate this fic to gowi, midnight-rambler, winglessangelsstillfly, MissCharstar, xXDemDemXx, liddlepierat, Tomboy Amy and Pale-Amazon, who commented on my other fic.**

**Introduction**

„Let me introduce myself. My name is Sebastian Verlac." He held out his hand toward Clary with a friendly smile.

She caught her breath, but she managed to shake his hand. He was so familiar! It was some bizarre coincidence: Sebastian exactly looked like her graphic novel's main character, the cursed prince. Same face, same eyes and mouth. The similarity totally made her dumbfounded.

"I heard a lot about you," Sebastian noted.

"And what?" Clary asked, because this comment had pulled her out of her reverie.

Sebastian laughed softly.

"You know you're famous because of your father."

Clary lowered immediately. It was never a good sign if someone mentioned her in one sentence with her father.

"You think I want to rule the world with him, too," she mocked. She couldn't help it but she was angry. She couldn't understand how could everyone think she and Jace are sided with their father, even after they'd fought against him on the boat.

"I don't," Sebastian replied jovially. "I heard how brave you are. How you fought against your father for the Mortal Cup. How you went to a hotel full of vampires after your friend.

Clary felt herself flush. These things were natural to her, to stand up for a friend. She hadn't felt herself brave. Scared, confused, angry, yes, but not brave.

"You don't know anything about me," Clary protested. "You don't know me at all."

"So why did you come here, if you knew, your brother won't like the idea?" Sebastian asked.

"It's complicated," replied Clary, poking her cake with a fork.

"I may understand it," Sebastian smiled. He sat across form her and ate his cake with a much better appetite than Clary.

In fact, she was so nervous that she could barely eat, and only when she was really hungry. Though she didn't need to fear of the Clave's punishment, because she entered Alicante without permission, but she had to meet them. Somehow the Lightwoods managed to convince them that Clary got lost during the attack, so she had to agree again to meet the Clave. They had better things to do right now instead of questioning her, so she got a couple of days, while she could be in Idris freely.

Jace wasn't happy about it, and as Clary thought of their arguments, when she'd told she could stay and she would meet the Clave, she had lump in her throat. Jace said awful things to her, and those sentences echoed in her mind since then. '_You'll never be a Shadowhunter… You're a disaster for us… You mess up everything._'

"You're thinking about Jace again," Sebastian said a little sadly.

"No, I don't." But the answer came too soon. Sebastian smiled sorrowfully.

"Come on, I can see it. You two must have a fight."

Clary chased a piece of strawberry around her plate with the fork, lost in thought, then shrugged.

"So why did you come here in spite of everything?" Sebastian asked again.

Clary sighed. She didn't know Sebastian at all. She had lots of things she should do instead of befriending someone. Her mother maybe would never wake up, if she, Clary didn't do something. On the other hand Sebastian was the only one who treated her nice.

"Because my mother is really sick, maybe dying." Her eyes fixed on her mug all the time. "And I'm the only one who can help her. The problem is I don't know where I should start. The one person who could help me is Ragnor Fell, and I have no idea where is he.

"I can help," he said, then reached out and placed his hand on Clary's. Maybe he could really help, because he knew better the Shadowhunter world than she. Maybe this was why Clary felt herself more relieved. But maybe she just desperately wanted someone who could comfort her, if she couldn't do that.

"Clary, you can't go!" Jace's voice echoed in Amatis' kitchen.

Clary got around him angrily and grabbed her coat, which hang on a peg. Jace moved so fast that she could see it blurry. He caught Clary's wrist before she could step aside.

"Jace!" Clary hissed. "Let me go!"

"Clary, you can't go with Sebastian!" Anger flickered in Jace's eyes and something else, which Clary couldn't decipher.

"Just because you're my brother, you have no right to tell me what I can and can't do."

"I have every right!" Jace shouted. Clary recoiled. Jace had never shouted with her like this. Could it be that he got what he wished for? Did he hate her?

"Jace, you have to understand. I'm doing it for my mother." Clary almost begged. "I'm the only one who can help her."

"With Sebastian?" Jace cut in.

"It seems he's the only one who takes me seriously!" Clary said furiously. "And let me go!" With that she yanked her wrist back, pulling out of his grasp.

Jace just stood there wordlessly, while she shrugged her coat on.

"Do you trust him?" Jace broke the awkward silence.

Clary stood back to him, so she couldn't see his expression and his voice didn't give away anything. Jace had this emotionless mode, which resembled to Valentine eerily, and Clary hated that.

"Jace, he treats me normal. By the way he told me that Simon is in prison, which you forgot to mention."

Jace didn't answer, and Clary turned angrily to face him.

"How could you do it? He trusted you!"

"I…"

But Clary didn't listen; she could do it without her heart breaking.

"I'm really sorry about Fell didn't help us."

"No problem, it's not your fault," Clary replied automatically, as she wondered how she would convince Jace to help her get the Book of the White. They'd argued a lot recently, she didn't think her brother would help her. Maybe if she promises to go home. Of course, only after they rescued Simon.

"I should comfort you." Sebastian smiled. "It's about your mother." Something flickered in his eyes, which Clary couldn't decipher. But his closeness somehow relaxed her; and now she needed it with her life falling apart, and it seemed she could never be back on track again.

Snapped out of her reverie, she found Sebastian standing before her. He was so close that Clary would have found it disturbing under normal circumstances, but with her new Shadowhunter acquaintance, it was the exact opposite. She didn't know why, when she was clearly in love with her own brother. Maybe it was because of the desperate need to forget her so wrong feelings. She looked up at his eyes, which seemed to be fathomless black. He was so different from Jace. Clary would paint her own brother with golden colors, but Sebastian was a living black-and-white drawing. But maybe this difference would help her, Clary thought, to get over Jace, so she let the desire take over her, she didn't protest, just lost in his eyes.

As if Sebastian knew what she was thinking, or he saw the determination in her eyes, because he smiled. Not nicely, nor encouragingly to comfort her, but like Jace, as if he knew what was his effect on the other gender.

"I want to make it right," Sebastian broke the silence. "And I know how could I do that."

"You really didn't have to…" Clary began.

"Come on, this is the least I can do." With that Sebastian took Clary's wrist and headed for Wanderer. She couldn't help, but followed him and didn't pull away from his touch.

"What?" She honestly couldn't think of anything right now, just to get the book to Magnus.

"You'll see. You'll like it."

Clary couldn't understand what they were doing there, when they stopped on a low hill. There was just a blackened stone heap in the clearing.

It seemed like it had been a base of a house once, a chimney and a piece of wall was still standing. But everything was covered by weed, which clarified the fact, that nobody had been here for a long time.

"What are we doing here?" asked the girl confusedly.

"You don't know?" answered Sebastian. "This is the Fairchild manor, where your parents lived. And where your brother was born."

It was enough for Clary, and her legs automatically took her forward. She faintly heard Sebastian calling out for her, but she just went toward the ruins. Hodge's voice echoed in her head about how Valentine had set himself and his family on fire.

She stepped between the ruins and easily could gathered the shape of the old room. As she looked around with dimming sight among the blackened remains of the furniture, her mind run on the fact that this place was the source of so much trouble and lies. Her mother had lived here as a Shadowhunter, happily with Valentine. It was where her mother had found out what her husband had wanted to do, where she had decided, that she had taken steps against the Uprising. And this was the place what Valentine had destroyed to make Jocelyn believe, that Jace had died. Not just the place was ruined, but the things had been attached to it had destroyed and influenced a lot of lives.

Clary touched her face to wipe away her tears. She barely realized that she was crying.

"Clary…" Sebastian said hesitantly. The girl didn't even notice, that he had stood beside her.

Clary hastily wipe her tears away with her sleeve.

"Clary, I'm so sorry. I thought, it's good idea…. that you wanna see it."

The girl fiercely nodded to reassure Sebastian.

"No, it's okay. Thank you."

˝I can imagine how hard is for you to be here after what happened, after what Valentine did, after what your mother did… She's a brave woman.˝

"Yeah, she is," mumbled Clary, and the pain bite into her chest deeper. She needed her mother right now most of all times, when her life was about to fall to pieces. But her mother wasn't here.

"Just as you are," remarked Sebastian in a low voice.

Clary looked up surprised, and her eyes meet with Sebastian's again. The longing for someone who can make her forget everything, was so strong, almost unbearable. She needed someone so much, and Sebastian was here.

Sebastian, like he could read her thoughts from her face, leaned closer and his lips brushed over Clary's. It wasn't a real kiss, just a fleeting touch, but it was enough for Clary to send shivers through her. Her lips opened, and this time she kissed Sebastian, twining her arms around his neck, draw him closer, and pressed their bodies to each others.

She couldn't help, but compare the boy to Jace. In her mind the thoughts was running around continuously. Jace always smelled like fresh soap, while Sebastian had some kind of spicy fragrance. The touch of both boys was gentle despite the callosities, which characterize the Shadowhunters' hands well. But aside from this, Clary felt some kind of satisfaction, although Sebastian unambiguously wasn't Jace, and he wasn't her brother, and yet there was spark between them, which wasn't there between Simon and her. Maybe she can forget Jace after all, maybe her mother wakes up, maybe she's just found a nice guy and maybe her life will get together again.

The twilight found Clary with Sebastian. After they had ridden home to Alicante on a horse, Clary tried to find Jace to talk with him about the visit at the Wayland manor, but she couldn't find him anywhere. At last she gave in to Sebastian, who wanted to show her something again. But this time he promised there will be no bad family memories.

He led her outside the town, up to a hill, from where there was a breath-taking view to Alicante. Clary looked over the roofs of the town's houses, the top of the Hall of Accords, moreover from here she could see the Gard and the Sparkling of Lake Lyn.

"It's amazing," slipped out from her mouth.

Sebastian laughed softly.

"I thought, that you would love it."

Clary squinted at Sebastian, and she couldn't help it, broke into a smile.

"Why?"

"You are artistic," shrugged Sebastian "And it's a beautiful sight. I knew, that you would appreciate it."

"You're too good at this," declared Clary.

"At what?" asked the boy innocently.

Clary looked over the land again which was made more beautiful by the sight of the Demon Towers, which sparkled in the setting sun.

"At this."

Sebastian laughed again.

"I was raised by a French woman, it definitely means something. I'm romantic. It's in my blood." He put down the basket which he hold in his hand so far, than he took out the folded sheet and in a leisure way, laid it on the ground.

"I hope you don't mind a little picnic."

Clary shook her head, as she sat down. She felt happier and lighter. She knew that it wasn't right because when it'd happened last time, her life had turned worse. But temporarily she couldn't do anything, she had to work on it first. With Sebastian, maybe she can forget Jace. But she really can? Is it the right thing to do at all?

She was jerked back from her trance by Sebastian thudding down beside her, and gave her a sandwich.

˝Thanks.˝ Clary took it, though she didn't feel hungry. But one thing caught her sight.

"What happened with your hand?" pointed at Sebastian's bandage.

"Oh, it's really nothing" replied the boy cheerfully.

After the picnic they took a walk on the other side of the hill. They didn't go far, and Clary trusted in Sebastian that he knew where to go. But when they who knows for how many times returned to the picnic sheet, Clary noticed, that something was wrong. Alicante's lights had an orange shade, but what was more nauseating, thick plumes of smoke curled up, and it was only pierced by the Demon Towers' black tips.

It was an unbelievable sight, but it still had happened, Alicante was on fire. Few minutes earlier – or maybe it was half an hour – the city had seemed normal.

Her heart was pounding wild as she floundered on the hillside, and Sebastian called out for her in vain again. At last the boy decided to follow Clary, because shortly caught up with her. Every step toward the burning city was excruciating, and it seemed like they hadn't gotten any closer.

It was eternity by the time they arrived to the North Gate.

"That's it" thought Clary. When she let herself to feel happy for a couple of minutes, a bigger chaos grows. She felt remorse again, because she had agreed to have a picnic with Sebastian, instead of searching Jace, and trying to find the Book of White with him.

"There's no guard anywhere near" said Clary while she was looking around.

Sebastian's seraph blades had been in his hand already, but Clary didn't notice when he had taken it out. The boy changed into Shadowhunter mode, which Clary also had seen so many times in case of Jace.

From this could be seen perfectly how differently they were raised from an average mundane, every time they felt danger, they change into battle mode immediately. It was the same with Sebastian now, he cautiously sized up the place, went through the Gate, and he held Clary close behind himself.

What they saw was dreadful. The town was in flames, the windows of every shop were broken, and the pieces of the glass was spread on the ground, between the cobblestones, and crunched under their feet. Clary didn't dare to look around; there were bodies everywhere, on every street. Human bodies. She was afraid to look at them closer, because it might be someone she knew. She noticed two figures laying side by side, the smaller one had dark hair, and he was too short to be an adult. It was when Clary realized, that only the children and the old ones were in the city because of the meeting.

Her heart sank as she stepped closer to the two bodies. The older man held his hand in front of the little boy protectively also in his death. He wasn't anybody Clary had known, therefore she felt relief, but on the other hand, she felt guilty too because how can she be glad if someone died.

Then again, the boy had familiar black hair, and his glasses had slipped out of place. If one of the glasses' lenses hadn't had a long crack throughout, and the blood hadn't gathered around the boy's head like a grotesque halo, she would have believed, that he was sleeping.

She had a tiny memory about when she had found Max in the Institute as he had slept on the couch, when Jace had said, Max had been able to fall asleep anywhere.

But no, the boy definitely wasn't sleeping now. Clary winked the tears out of her eyes, and realized that not Max Lightwood was lying in front of her.

She sighed in relief and a stronger feeling of guilt was building in her. She was afraid so much, that just a little similarity was enough to saw her loved ones in the face of the dead.

Sebastian suddenly grabbed her arm, forced her to look up at him.

"Demons,"said Sebastian clearly.

Clary also could smell now the repulsive, sweet scent, which could mean only one thing. Demons lurked nearby. She hadn't noticed until now, that the streets were filled with noises of the fight, maybe she was shocked, she thought. Peoples' screams and demons' howls echoed from every direction.

Clary looked around nervously waiting for a demon to show up. She didn't have to wait long when she saw them in a back alley as they gathered around something. She didn't know what kind of demons were they; she had never seen any before. They were similar to man-shaped clouds of smoke with yellow glowing eyes. Though she didn't have time to think about it because she noticed something gold flashing among the demons. Clary's heart missed a beat. Two demons were killed, and turned into ashes accompanied by a sizzling noise, but still stayed enough. On the other hand it was enough for Clary to catch a glimpse of the Shadowhunter fighting against the demons.

Jace.

Her heart started to beat faster and she intentionally run toward her brother although she knew well, she can't do anything against the demons. There were five demons at least, and they surrounded Jace, who held a seraph blade in both hands. He was trapped by the wall, sized up the danger in a moment, and with incredible speed run toward the enemy. Clary cried out unintentionally.

"No!"

But Jace was not for nothing the best warrior in his age. While he stabbed a demon, he got out of the other one's way. The first demon hadn't even turned to ashes when he dispatched the second and the third one. He moved so easily and gracefully as he wasn't fighting for his life at the moment. He turned toward the fourth demon, which wanted to escape. But Jace jumped after, and killed it successfully. But he didn't notice the shadow piling up over him. The last demon had been hidden into the darkness until now, and got around him. Clary stood stiff, ready to scream to warn him. But there was no need for this, because the demon suddenly turned into ashes and smoke.

She didn't understand what had happened and it seemed Jace was surprised too, because he just blinked and stared into the air.

Sebastian came into sight from the shadows. Clary had failed to notice the he had disappeared from beside her. Mentally she scolded herself, because she didn't even think about worrying for the other boy. Since she had seen Jace, every other thing had stopped to exist.

The boys looked at each other speechlessly for an awkwardly long moment. Clary knew well, that Jace won't say thanks to anybody. It crossed her mind, that maybe a Shadowhunter doesn't say thanks even when someone saved his life.

"I thought I would help you," said Sebastian easily, but as he flexed his shoulders, it gave him away.

"You didn't have to" Jace shrugged.

"Yes, I did." His voice became so cold that a shiver run throughout Clary's spine from it. This tone simply didn't fit to Sebastian's nice features.

"Do you really think, that I couldn't have handled a few Iblis demon?" retorted Jace with unusual sarcasm. "You know don't have to save me to impress my sister."

"Your sister" Sebastian experimented the words with an ironic smile.

Maybe Jace anticipated something, because he had gripped his sword harder, but it was too late. A silver flash. The clattering of metal on the cobblestones. Clary needed a minute to realize what had happened. Sebastian stabbed Jace. Clary was numb as she watched the happenings; she became paralyzed with fear and disbelief.

"_No, it can't be_," thought Clary _"It can't really happen." _

Jace looked uncomprehendingly at his seraph blade as he dropped it, like he was wondering why he had done it. Then terribly slowly he turned his face toward Sebastian. Clary couldn't see Jace's expression this way, but she could the other boy's, who broke into a smugly smile. Sebastian became so different; from his posture a strong arrogance could be felt, his fathomless black eyes sparkled coldly, just like Valentine's.

Sebastian pulled the sword out of Jace, and as it had been the only thing had held the boy in place, Jace fell on his knees and awkwardly gazed at the wound on his chest. He put his hand on it, and studied it in the startling orange light of the fire. The blood seemed black in the night. As he couldn't understand it, Jace fell down. He touched the ground with a painful thud.

Clary just stood there, and she wasn't able to process it. Jace isn't allowed to die. Simply not.

"Let me introduce myself." Sebastian said in eerily calm voice. As if he hadn't stabbed someone earlier. Clary didn't dare to say the word _"killed"_, not even in herself. She couldn't help herself; she looked up at the black haired Shadowhunter, who grinned like someone put Christmas for an earlier date. Clary wanted to wipe away his grin from his face, but she was helpless even is her furious state; the fear she had to see Jace like this, paralyzed her.

"My name is Jonathan Christopher Morgenstern. I'm your real brother."

Clary almost couldn't even recognize the words because she was in shock. She didn't notice that Sebastian came toward her either; she just paid attention when the boy stood in front of her. At last only one thought echoed in her mind, as she looked into the endlessly dark eyes: "_Why is that, I always like the wrong boys?"_

Then the world was swallowed by the blackness, as Sebastian, alias Jonathan beat his fist down.


End file.
